Our commitment to improving the patient experience is supported by:

Ensuring healthy workplaces

Investing in staff and physician leadership

Creating stronger teams that work together and learn together

Integrating customer service with patient safety and quality of care

Testing and sharing new ideas

How you can get involved in your care

To learn about what's important in your care and to help us make decisions about hospital practices, we want to engage with patients and families differently. If you want to be involved in an advisory role, please contact Amy Whidden at amy.whidden@williamoslerhs.ca. Various opportunities will be available in the future.

Is the patient experience about the food that is served in the rooms? The amount of time that a patient needs to wait? How about the way they are treated, or the way they perceive they are being treated? Patient experience is a complex term that sums up all of those areas and more.

To capture a full view of how well we're meeting the needs of our patients and families, we use a number of different ways to engage with them to create an environment that supports and exceptional patient experience.

Measurement

The Call Centre

We contact our patients 48 hours after discharge to get their feedback on their stay and the quality of their care. This includes all inpatient units as well as patients who have visited our Emergency Departments.

We use the "voice of the patient" to capture valuable feedback that helps us share recognition of staff, feedback to improve the patient experience and address potential concerns. Patient feedback is discussed and celebrated in daily unit level performance huddles. The feedback also guides our action planning for future improvements.

The Call Centre provides a unique opportunity for Osler staff to engage in Communication Coaching and to develop professionally as they hear about a patient’s experience. One staff commented: I’ve realized how we can improve on the things we do and how much some lives are change by the way we react to someone who rely on us in their time of need”.

In 2012 the Service Excellence Call Centre was recognized as a Leading Practice by the Ontario Hospital Association and featured in the OHA Spring 2013 "Achieving Patient Experience Excellence in Ontario: An Idea Book". In August 2013 the Service Excellence Call Centre was also recognized as a Leading Practice by Accreditation Canada.

Metrics

Our organization has established targets for patient satisfaction which is captured through our survey question: “Would you recommend this hospital to family and friends” Initiatives are established corporately to ensure we are creating an optimum patient experience. How are we doing? You can see our most updated scores here.

Relationship-Based Culture:

Engagement

Our team provides support and coaching to staff and physicians to highlight the importance of giving patients a positive experience every time.

Service Recovery

This is the process of hearing feedback from patients and families, and how this is brought forward to clinical teams to improve the patient experience and provide follow-up and resolution for the patients and families.

Improvement Projects

Family Presence Policy

We have developed a patient-centred approach that supports longer visitor hours and a visitor at the patient’s bedside overnight in order for family members to be closer to their loved ones, and allow them to be more involved in their loved ones' care.

Emergency Department Representative:

This newly created role will act as an ambassador to provide comfort and assistance to patients and their families waiting for medical services.

Emergency Department Wait Times

Osler is currently working on a way to publicly post Emergency Department wait times so that patients and families are made aware of current wait times so they know what to expect.

Patient & Family Advisory Council

We have a patient & family advisory council to incorporate feedback based on their personal experience to influence how we deliver care.